This invention relates to a telephone housing and, more particularly, to such a housing having an easily changeable outer shell.
Often it is necessary to change the color or the design contours of a communication housing. In practice this has been accomplished in the past by unplugging the telephone and substituting a new telephone or other communication device for the removed device. From a cost point of view, such an arrangement is undesirable.
One arrangement for accomplishing the desired result would be to design the housing cover in such a manner that it could be removed easily. However, following this approach, problems exist in several areas. As a first instance, many people approach the idea of removing the cover of a sophisticated electronic device with a great amount of trepidation. These folks either are not familiar with mechanical apparatus or do not wish to be bothered with complex instructions which are susceptible to misunderstandings and improper assembly. Thus, it is desired to provide an electronic communication housing having an easily replaceable outer cover.
Compounding the problem is the fact that many of the newly designed housings have wrap around styling and thus are not susceptible to the type of assembly where an upper section is fastened to a lower base. In these designs, it is necessary to provide an arrangement which allows a person who may not possess a high degree of expertise in construction techniques and who may not possess a high degree of manual dexterity to nonetheless disassemble and assemble a multiport housing. Such a person, for example, could find it difficult to assemble a multiport housing if two of the parts had to be positioned together and held in place while a third locking part was installed. This operation becomes even more difficult for the novice who must follow instructions while balancing the various parts.
Thus it is desired to design a communication housing having the capability of easy changeability with respect to its color and design contours while also being structurally sound and not susceptible to easy accidental separation.